Everyone’s looking to the debt limit vote next year as the opportunity for the GOP to shut down the government. However, that may come a whole lot sooner.

Since there was no budget passed for this year, the government is currently operating under a continuing spending resolution, which expires on December 3. They have to extend that or somehow pass some spending measure to keep the government functioning. Nancy Pelosi wants that continuing resolution to last through the budget year, until September 30, 2011. But Mitch McConnell has balked at that, and he could have the backup from his caucus to keep it blocked.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Thursday that Republicans won’t support a large spending bill to fund the federal government through fiscal 2011.

The decision pushes the fight over the budget until next year, when Republicans take control of the House of Representatives and gain half a dozen seats in the Senate.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell said the lesson of the midterm elections two weeks ago is that “Americans don’t want Congress passing massive trillion-dollar bills that have been thrown together behind closed doors.”

The goal of McConnell, and House Republicans, is to force a shorter-term spending measure that lasts perhaps until February or March, so they would have a stronger hand in shaping budget cuts immediately for fiscal year 2011 at that time.

Covering virtually the entire government, the giant $1.1 trillion-plus omnibus bill already represents a major concession by Democrats, who have tailored the measure to spending caps McConnell himself championed only months ago.

New discretionary spending — including defense — would grow by $18 billion, or an estimated 2 percent increase over 2010, and Obama’s own 2011 budget would be cut by as much as $26 billion to meet these targets.

If it fails now — and a short-term resolution is adopted — Republicans would gain a powerful vehicle to advance not just their budget agenda but also health care riders early in the next Congress.

Democrats failed to pass a budget, backed themselves into a corner, accepted Republican demands, and after the election, the Republicans moved the goalposts again.

So it goes.

The White House apparently wants the 10-month CR, and full discretion to direct the money. If they cannot agree on a decision, or if Republicans block anything from passing, we could see a government shutdown as soon as December 4.

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Alan Simpson: Deficit Plan Can Pass After Debt Limit ‘Blood Bath’
‘”I can’t wait for the blood bath in April,” said Alan Simpson at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast roundtable with reporters this morning. “It won’t matter whether two of us have signed this or 14 or 18. When debt limit time comes, they’re going to look around and say, ‘What in the hell do we do now? We’ve got guys who will not approve the debt limit extension unless we give ‘em a piece of meat, real meat, off of this package.’ And boy the bloodbath will be extraordinary.”‘

O/T but related: Jacob Lew (budget head under Clinton) has been confirmed by the Senate “as the new White House budget chief after a Democratic senator ["Mary, Mary, quite contrary"] dropped a hold on his nomination.”

It seems the Republicants don’t understand that Reagan’s “Government is the problem” was just a rhetorical device he used to distract from his deficit spending spree and raising taxes on the middle class.

New scientific data suggests that there is a direct correlation between money and intelligence. The more money, the stupider the person. Look at the millionaire congress critters, with over half of them worth over a million an up to over 300 million dollars. NOT ONE OF THEM HAS *ANY* IDEA OF HOW SOMEONE LIVES ON $10,000/YEAR.
Did you know that some wall streeters are making A HALF MILLION DOLLARS PER HOUR! That is over a billion dollars per year!
But we should not be concerned about any of this, because the poor having no money is the way to prosperity for the United Corporations of America.